Our award-winning design for New Ludgate set a vision for reintegrating this important site on the processional route from Ludgate Circus to St Paul’s into the City’s social and economic life. We brought this to fruition as architect for One New Ludgate and executive architect for Two New Ludgate designed by Sauerbruch Hutton. It is a site redolent with history. From here the Belle Sauvage coaching inn welcomed or saw off numerous fictional and real travellers; Pocahontas and London’s first rhino paid visits. Later came railway engineers who put an iron viaduct across Ludgate Hill, and World War II, which left it in ruins. We proposed two buildings to make best use of the site’s gradient as well as level changes resulting from burying the railway in the 1990s. The buildings on Ludgate Hill step back to protect views to St Paul’s. Carefully fabricated components including precast frames and conical glass canopies befit the cathedral’s setting – except for the point where the two buildings meet on Old Bailey, opposite a decorative terracotta façade which stands out amid a run of Portland stone. Here the façade transforms to amber glass and Sauerbruch Hutton’s colour scheme changes to make a backdrop for a small suntrap of a new piazzetta. This project combines two streams of the practice’s work: strategic urban masterplanning and high quality sustainable workplaces. With roof gardens landscaped by Gustafson Porter + Bowman and numerous terraces and balconies, most floors have access to outdoor space and excellent views.